Had the most amazing Birthday. I spent much of the day with Kathleen Keenan, Certified Saori Instructor @ her Sarasota studio for a private lesson. She is a generous instructor, coach, and cheer leader.

Very pleased with the outcome … a sampler of playing with color & texture and somehow it all works. Plan to turn it into a mobius scarf.

My first use of Fibonacci numbers was laying out my “Convergence Tri-Loom Shawl”. Every two years, the Handweavers’ Guild of America “converges” on a city for the HGA’s International Fiber Arts Conference. In 2008, they met in Tampa, Florida. To honor convergence, the Guild commissioned the creation of special yarn. The space-dyed yarn was dyed in colors of the tropics, brilliant pink, turquoise, green and orange. I plied the space-dyed convergence rayon singles with bright colored cotton for a tri-loom project.

I’m tall and wanted a generous shawl. Not satisfied with the available 7’ looms, I wanted an 8’ loom. That summer, we were planning a vacation in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, so I had my summer project. I had my husband cut three pieces of wood molding to create the tri-loom and had him bolt the corners together so I could disassemble it to take it to the mountains where I could reassemble it. He devised a transportation device, utilizing a PVC pipe which he capped on each end, the “limbs” of the tri-loom rode to the mountains on the roof rack in style.

Once we got to the mountains, I began to hammer nails. Yes, I’m obsessive, before the groceries were purchased, before the suitcases were stored, I was nailing. I carefully marked and nailed exactly the same number of nails across the top as were nailed into the other two sides of the triangle. When I started to weave, the threads became more and more angled; they weren’t straight up and down. I soon figured out that the ratio should be two to one; that is, two across the top for each along the adjoining sides. BUT, serendipity, it all worked out. When I first began to weave the shawl, I had found my weave very loose. I discovered that if I looped my yarn twice around the bottom nails for each time I looped the yarn around a top nail, I had a tight weave. (Twice the yarn and twice the work, but a very satisfactory result.) I finished the shawl by treating each loop separately, knotting fringe in each loop.

I wanted the stripes to blend into one another. I recalled when I was looking at sock knitting patterns reading that stripes are most pleasing to the eye when one uses stripes proportioned in additional adjoining numbers: 1, 1 (1 + 0), 2 (1 + 1), 3 (1+2), 5 (2+3), 8 (3 + 5), 13 (5 + 8), 21 (8 + 13), etc. The number sequence was named for Leonardo Fibonacci an Italian mathematician who introduced the relationship, also known as the golden ratio, to the West; it had been earlier described by an Indian mathematician.

By the nature of tri-loom weaving technique, each pass creates both warp and weft. It moves from the bottom left side to the top of the triangle and down again; it then crosses the loom and loops on the next available lower right nail before going up to the top right and then reverses the process, ending on a nail on the lower left. This process creates two warp and two weft threads for each pass. Therefore, my widest stripe was 8 pairs of two. The next stripe of the same color on either side of the mentioned stripe was 5 pairs of two. The next stripe of the same color on either side was 3 pairs of two; then 2 pairs of two; then 1 pair of two and finally 1 pair of two. I overlapped the colors, placing the narrowest strip of one color next to the thickest stripe of another. I love the final results.

I worked on the shawl in the summer and had to wait ‘til fall to return to the mountains to finish the project. (P.S. My husband took pity on me and my struggles at nail driving and purchased for me in Ashville a beautiful cherry Hill Creek Fiber Studio 6’ 10” tri-loom.) That next summer, I wore my Shawl as I wandered through Convergence. Yes, Florida in the summer but thanks to the air conditioning, it was freezing (at least to this Florida gal). A Convergence shawl with a tropical twist was just the thing.

The Sunna Double Slotted Rigid Heddle is unique in that it allows the 13 pattern threads to remain in the center of the warp opening whether the heddle is in the up or down position. This allows the weaver to easily pick-up pattern “picks”.

I designed a “tape” or “band” with a picked celtic pattern in yellow on red in the center or the band with a blue, white, yellow and red narrow pattern on each edge. First I warped the planned design. At first I used a yellow weft thread but I didn’t like the speckled yellow on red background so I switched to red weft. All the thread is 8/2 cotton but I doubled the design threads, treating them as a single thread.

To manage the thread while I warped, I borrowed a iron rod from the apron of my 4/4 floor loom and spread it between the runs of the sides of an old oak babby crib that I’ve repurposed as a drying rack. I spread the sides to better accomodate the spools of thread.

The heddle was threaded; pattern threads in the short slots. I used a Stoorstalka threader which I loved to thread the heddle. My only complaint, lost one (threader) to the carpet. Despite getting on hands and kneeds, still haven’t found it.

To follow the pattern while I wove, I used a ruler with sticky magnets attached to the reverese. Used a dollar store metal message board and the ruler to move along easily and without worring if pattern would float away.

Wound the threads onto the cradle loom and began weaving. What a joy … The Suynna is truely linnovative and a delight to use! Was a tad too large for the cradle loom, but workable.

Great deal (FREE SHIPPING) for purchases through my Etsy site for a limited time. Deal applies to NEW Schacht Spindle Floor Looms ordered between 4/23/2013 and 5/17/2013. For details, visit my Etsy site HERE.

(Click on image below to go to Schacht Spindle web site to learn more about these floor looms.)

Be watching this blog where we’ll be reviewing and demonstrating accessories for rigid heddle weaving and tape/band loom weaving.

Announcing that nifty new threaders have been added to the Etsy store. While the Stoorstalka threaders that come 5 to a pack are perfect for double-slotted rigid heddles (LOL all those tiny holes) they work great for all rigid heddle application. The stiff thread is easy to thread and is kind to the yarn fiber.

Very excited to announce, a sweet shipment is on it’s way from Sweden. I’m now a distributor for Stoorstalka providing band – inkle – tape – rigid heddle loom weavers supplies. Below is a sampling of what I’ll be selling here in the states. More will be added to the Etsy site as fast as my little fingers can add them.Visit the Seabreezespinner’s Etsy Store to make your purchase.